South Kalimantan wants greater mining royalty

South Kalimantan Governor Sjachriel Darham appealed to the House of Representatives to help his administration to demand a greater mining royalty from the central government.

He said that 80 percent of the 13.5 percent mining royalty should be given to the province to finance social and economic development.

Speaking during a hearing session with the House of Representatives, Sjachriel said that the current 20 percent portion was too small.

He also criticized the current system where all of the mining royalty should be first transferred to the central government before distributing it back to the province.

He said that the problem was that the province had to wait for too long to get the royalty into its coffer and often the amount was much smaller than 20 percent.

Sjahriel said that the current system should be changed, allowing the local government to take its portion of the royalty immediately without having to transfer it first to Jakarta. (*)